Tom Brady Featured on Cover of Madden 18, Doesn’t Believe in Curses

To preface: I’m a BIG Madden Curse guy. Big believer in the curse. I’m not convinced it hasn’t ruined the careers of guys like Shaun Alexander, Vince Young, and Peyton Hillis (just kidding, Hillis was a scrub who had 4 good games and we stuck him on the cover). I do think it’s a little played out as of late, but in general it just worries me. I was a strong opponent of putting Rob Gronkowski on the cover last year, because why does the most injury-prone athlete in sports history need more bad voodoo, so on paper, this doesn’t thrill me either.

But at the same time, this is pretty awesome. All of it. The fact that Tom Brady will become the oldest athlete to ever grace the cover of Madden is just awesome. The fact that he’ll make it back to back years for Patriots players on the cover is awesome. And the video is the perfect Tom response to something like this. His Facebook page is typically cringe-worthy to the point that I’d venture to say it’s the most (only) unlikable thing about him, but this video’s great. Calmed my nerves a bit, not gonna lie. I’m always worried that some Vontaze Burfict-type douchebag is gonna take a cheap shot on Tom and try to end his career, so this doesn’t change much, but this video definitely helps.

Hopefully, with the GOAT Edition of Madden we can actually get the GOAT Madden. The franchise as a whole has been slipping lately, as franchises like MLB The Show and NBA2K just keep getting better. Madden’s basically been the same game since like 2007, which is why sales are lower now than they were, say, 8 or 9 years ago. It’s still a classic game, don’t get me wrong, and my roommates and I have played no less than 100 games of Madden in the last calendar year. But if you’re not moving forward, you’re moving backwards, and Madden has gotten pretty complacent since it became the powerhouse that it is. So my hope is, with the greatest athlete of all time gracing their cover in 2018, the tech nerds over at EA will feel obligated to put forth their best effort possible on the gameplay. Better graphics, new features, the whole nine. Make me proud, nerds.